- Richard SanFilippo
- Albums and Singles
It's easy to dismiss The Wake, tooeasy. At a cursory listen one might be tempted to shrug them off as aJoy Division clone (of which they've been accused), or as a pop-likehybrid of Joy Division and the Cure. But like I said, that's too easy.The Wake may share similarities with these bands, especially since theysigned to Factory Records and therefore were label mates with JoyDivision, Section 25, and Cabaret Voltaire. But infusing all of thetracks on "Harmony & Singles" is a jangly post-punk, almostsynthpop, sensibility that the other bands, thanks to their emergencein the midst of first-wave punk, lack. While some of the lyrics mayfall a little flat, such as laments against god ("a fear of god / thegod of love") in "Judas" there are plenty of more powerful moments thatallow you to overlook these small missteps, such as the immediate punchof "Testament", whose strong bass line and catchy riff will getanyone's, even the most forlorn cooler-than-thou goth's, head bopping.Then, there are times, such as in "Patrol" or "Something Outside" thatthe synth elements may dominate and yet still keep those beguilingbeats and melodies fresh and fun enough to make you smile. And that'swhat separates The Wake from their more famous label mates: infectioussongs that are anything but oppressive, songs that strip away themelancholy, songs that border on love songs, to create strong post-punkpop. One of the best forgotten bands of the 80s, and we're lucky tohave them back. More reissues are on the way.
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
The same instrumental lineup forms the sounds (bozouki, guitar, tablas, electronics) but everything builds from an opening with field recordings into a maniac frenzy of electronic low bass rumbles, mad tablas and post drum-n-bass electronic whackery by the third track, "Mr. Titz (The Revelator)" (picture a call back to "First Dark Ride" with bozouki and tablas). With the accompanying visuals, the mental imagery I'm faced with is one of a surrealistic futuristic chase scene through a haunted rainforest.
Things calm down immediately after and the quartet return to more organic sounds with outdoor rain sounds, scraped violins and sparse guitars. Long, delayed guitars, electronic and acoustic noises follow in the beat-absent subsequent tracks. A crackling fire, guitar loops, bozouki and whispers through what's most likely a guitar pickup permeate the disc's last song, the colossal "A Glow in the Dark". After a miniature half-lullaby motif, some drone and bozouki interplays and about 17 minutes, silence falls. A minute later a brief but sweet guitar melody closes the disc. I still don't understand why bands choose to do "hidden" songs like this separated by a silence, but whatever.The rest of this incredible second album more than makes up for that.
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
It's true that there are no real surprises here, though the Boards of Canada sound has been tweaked - if only slightly. The most noticeable difference between Geogaddi and Music Has The Right To Children is that Geogaddi is more organic and a little more abrasive in sound, things aren't quite as produced and sleek as Music Has The Right.... This is a good thing, almost a harkening back to their early self-released records Twoism and Boc Maxima, arguably their best work. One thing I particularly like about Boards of Canada is their ability to find the beauty in sounds that are not quite in tune, like a slightly warped record, and this is evident on tracks like "Gyroscope" and "Dawn Chorus." There's an even greater use of words and voice samples than before, especially on "1969," which contains the clearest bit of "lyrics" on the album ("1969 in the sunshine"). One thing I was worried about was that they were going to recycle some of the old tracks from their early days on the assumption that the majority of people had never heard them (Music Has The Right... was nearly half previously released songs), but luckily the album appears to almost completely new material. Again, there's a good ratio of minute-long abstract tracks in between the longer beats, and like Music Has The Right... it makes for a more varied, interesting album. It's no lie that Boards of Canada are largely responsible for the ridiculous number of awful "IDM" tracks floating around the world on CD and/or mp3 that contain one or more of the following elements: the sound of children laughing/playing, random voices spouting words or numbers, happy melodies over jagged electronic drumbeats, etc. Which makes it all the more impressive that Boards of Canada didn't retreat from these elements on Geogaddi; instead, they've embraced their nostalgic childhood aesthetic shamelessly: samples of a 4-H public service announcement about energy, song titles like "The Beach at Redpoint," kaleidoscopic images of smiling kids. But you also get the sense that they are poking fun at their image a little bit - there are so many instances on the record of people counting up from zero that it has to be joke, not to mention the female voice that says "yellow" in the middle of "Alpha and Omega" - both references to "Aquarius," arguably their most popular (and influential) track. The bottom line is, if you like Boards of Canada then you're probably going to like Geogaddi, and if you've been waiting for them to fuck up so you can say "Ha!" then you'll probably find something to pick on, but what's the point of that? Warp should be glad they have at least one artist left who still has a little bit of taste and restraint.
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- Carsten S.
- Albums and Singles
Packedin a c-shell case, the design leaves one with only a few hints but thesong titles. The web site provides more information about the musiciansand instruments, however. A sparse, relaxed atmosphere opens thisalbum. Live drums merge with synthesizers, a W.S. Burroughs quote getsthrown in, analog sounds and an old drum machine jump into action as aninteresting (yet undistracting) sound wall evolves. The album proceedsin a slightly morbid mood—not really unexpected with the title thisalbum bears. 45 Self offers a well-crafted variety settled somewherebetween the joyful use of any available sound source (somewhatremeniscent of older Severed Heads) and an overall distant attitude(not unlike early Factory bands like A Certain Ratio or Section 25).What I especially like is the way they use vocals as integral parts ofthe pieces—never placed in the foreground but working as an effectivesubliminal addition.
'Atzec Gameshow Death Ritual' is an original piece of work I recommendwholeheartedly. The duo consits of Matt Nevomanta (drums, percussion,bells, beats, loops, Moog, analog synths, sound effects, guitars, bass,voices, piano, and samples) and Mike Sullivan (Analog synths, Theremin,sound effects, Moog, airwave, samples, bells, percussion, and voices).It's (up to now) only available via www.45self.8m.com.
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- Richard SanFilippo
- Albums and Singles
While most Hands bands tend to get lost among each other and feelsomewhat homogenous (Winterkalt? excluded), Cybernetic:Fuckheadzmanages to stay fresh, thanks to the seemingly never ending assault ofthis album. It lets up only for a vocal sample here or there, andpounds away for fifteen tracks at nearly seventy minutes. In a genreperilously on the edge of staleness, if not already over it,Cybernetic:Fuckheadz has found a way to keep it interesting, as thebeats press on, yet varying the tempo and style on each track, thelevels of surface noise and distortion constantly fluctuating, and themore typical techno sounds, when they do appear, become so altered asto be barely recognizable and always keep you interested. Every beat,every noise is important and clearly discernable. Unlike some similarprojects, you don't gloss over anything because you've heard it before.This is industrial strength techno as it always should have been. Tothink anything else is to be stuck somewhere in the mid-nineties.
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- David Piniella
- Albums and Singles
Although the group started out as solely Spruance,Bungle drummer Danny Heifitz and bassist Trevor Dunn, it has expanded(especially live, where multi-instrumentalists Spruance, Heifitz andDunn can only play one role at a time,) to include violinist EyvindKang, percusionist Willian Winant, Bungle saxophonist Bar McKinnon andvarious others. But enough background, what do they sound like?Middle-eastern-techno-surf-guitar is probably the most honest answer.Their earliest material was comic book noises you might expect from aMr. Bungle side project, but SC3 quickly progressed into it's own; acombination of spiritualy-tinged eastern melodies, surf guitar, deathmetal and electronic techno. "Book M" is their most recent album, it'sliner notes filled with notes more apropos to conspiracy theorymanifestos, with it's talk of the holy grail, hints of the crusades ofthe middle ages, knights templar and illustrations of some sort ofhermetic crypto-calligraphy. Whatever all that stuff means, the musicitself is excellent and well worth seeking out. Plaintive melodies bysoaring violins and quiet hand drums followed by electronic breakbeats,followed by surf-rock drums, stuttering bombastic rock blastbeats segueinto melodic breaks that sound orchestrated; often in the same song. Iknow this fusion sounds kind of unlikely to sound good, but I swear itnot only works, it works well."Book M" (and SC3 in general,) is very much about spirituality andreligion, and the album is divided into three sections: Hearing Fire,Seeing Fire and Being Fire. Included in "Book M" is 'Zulfiqar III' aremix previously only available on abriefly-limited-and-then-very-out-of-print 7", as well as (reworked)studio versions of some of the material ("Combat for the Angel") fromtheir previous album, the excellent live "Eyes of Flesh, Eyes ofFlame". It strikes me that this would be a good way to introduce thosewho are not into world music into it; there's a foreign-ness to thisrecord, but it's electronic and rock facets might make it morepalatable to those unused to something purely non-western. This is axrecord of high quality instrumental fusion (of really disparateelements, true,) which should not be missed.
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- Richard SanFilippo
- Albums and Singles
Theprevious album sleeves are adorned with runes and the records oftendeal with themes of power and war. "Noisient" isn't much different,except that, almost surprisingly, it's not about the Second World Warand it's impact on Europe, but the relatively unexplored (60s hippiebands excluded) Viet Nam war. The first side of this ten inch slab ofwhite vinyl from Old Europa Caf?, "Noisient 1", begins with a distortedand delayed sample of a soldier recounting his experience in SoutheastAsian jungles, and moves into a wet grind of sputtering analog soundsand repeated loops. Compared to most Folkstorm tracks it's slow andquiet, lacking some of the frenetic and discordant moments of the cds."Noisient 2" also begins quietly, with rumbling dark drones, and paleinfrequent beats covered with surges of static and a repeated,indecipherable vocal sample. Throughout "Noisient 2" you're waiting forthe inevitable payoff: the climax of a pure wall of noise, and ofcourse, you get it. The drones give way to analog vibrations that hidevocal samples and shift toward the logjam of noise and growled vocals.But again, it's almost quiet, lacking the impact of earlier Folkstormmaterial, and not quite what you expect from an album dealing with war.Nordvargr stopped recording as Folkstorm fairly recently, so thisrecord is the beginning of the end of this project. In the meantimehe's moved on to his own 205 Recordings and the Toroidh dark ambientproject, of which "Noisient" seems to be the perfect precursor. -
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- Jessica Tibbits
- Albums and Singles
'Dead Media' suffers from the same lackluster,drippy songwriting as its predecessor. Frontman Darren Hayman includeson the inner sleeve an extensively detailed list of all the equipmentthe band used on the album, and you'd think with the pride they take intheir capable equipment, they'd at least be able to pull off somedecent songs. All those well-documented vintage analog synths only endup sounding awkward, out of place and handled in an amateur manner. Infairness, the band does some interesting things electronically, and totheir credit, seem to be making a sincere attempt to move in a newdirection and avoid lapsing into hashing out the same type of materialover and over again. But songs like "Trouble Kid", which is sounbelievably banal lyrically (yet somehow oddly catchy musically,despite a frightening hard rock guitar riff) I find it shocking thatthis comes from the same man who wrote "A Hymn to the Postal Service"(although Hayman himself admits on the band's website in regards to thesong: "This is pretty shameless"). Did I actually hear: "I'm gonnasquash him flat like a bug / With my new Timberlands" or am I trappedin some warped parallel universe?? "Peppermint Taste" and "Half a Life"are equally awful, but without a redeeming pop hook. The band'senthusiasm for their new sound is evident, and thus it makes it evenmore difficult to write such a negative review, but unfortunately, inthis case there seems to something to be said for sticking to somethingthat works well. -
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- Richard SanFilippo
- Albums and Singles
The songs are called "I", "II", "III", and "IV", thesleeve is grey on black, and the record is heavyweight black vinyl.There is nothing to indicate how you should think, leaving the music toits own devices. "I" builds slowly and steadily with stiflingly slowbeats, under a wash of subtle analog vibrations that flicker around anappropriately eerie vocal sample, creating an intensely alien mood."II" continues to drown you in the same vein, although a bit noisier asthe sound sources feel increasingly found, such as a metal chairdragged across a concrete floor. Analog frequencies sputter in and out,but they're always cold, until it all coagulates into a miasma ofnoise, deliberate beats, and muted cries of anguish. By the end of theside, you're broken. If you're brave enough to flip the record, "III"starts the attack all over again. Whispers and growls from the murkyshadows return over the slow pounding and drone, increasing you'resense of anxiety. Like all great artists, Brighter Death Now excels atcreating internal tension, so as the music progresses, it heightens andbuilds upon the sense of paranoia, fear, and oppressiveness it'salready instilled. The last track, "IV" rumbles on, seeminglyincorporating bits of all the previous tracks into itself, a harbingerof the end. It's the death knell, as even the volume grows, and the lowfrequency bass grips you and begins to crush-the semblance of orderbreaks down as it echoes and pulses chaos. This record is damn good. Goout and find it. Play it, just not in the dark.
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- Rob Devlin
- Albums and Singles
Theirmusic is mostly an instrumental or vocals-garbled wall of distortednoise that occasionally contains a melody. This, their secondfull-length, features a line-up change with the only original mamberremaining being Matthew Middleton on guitars and vocals. All theperformances on the record are recorded with so much distortion, thatit is virtually unlistenable. That, and undecipherable. Basically,unenjoyable. It's like Dick Dale meets the Revillos and the Archers ofLoaf with Trans Am and Mogwai trading off on the mixing duties. Vocalsare double-tracked here and there, but neither are understandable, andit's all so extremely lo-fi and warped that it's laughable andpointless on virtually every track. Vocals and sounds are actuallybroken up, too, so the whole is often uneven. When you hear the hornson "Sufi," you're hoping for a way out. Sadly, there is none. The vocalhistrionics ("OH YEAH!," "UHHH!" and "OWWW!" are common) and sonicconfusion are here to stay. And stay. And annoy. There are some goodmelodies here, on occasion, and a few good uses of effects, but nothingto write home about. Try the sound samples and listen for yourself, butI say stay away. You'll learn nothing, and you'll want the time backyou spent listening.
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- Rob Devlin
- Albums and Singles
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